Inside the Creative Mind

- October 12, 2010 by Heather Escudero

Copywriters, art directors, interactive producers and the rest are a whole different breed. And their colleagues should understand that in order to effectively work with them. Here's what it looks like inside a creative’s head. 

Beware. We are about to tap into something mysterious, unpredictable and oftentimes downright unruly – the mind of a creative professional. While those may not be the qualities you look for in, say, a service repairman, it’s precisely the type of personality you want thinking about and working on your brand. Not convinced? Read on…

 Clocking in and Clocking in

While the hours posted on the door may say 9 to 5, rarely does a creative work such a steady shift. For many of us, campaign solutions are not found sitting behind our desks. Ideas have to rattle around in our heads a little while. So, while we may be walking out the agency door, we’re not punching out on the clock. We’re noodling on your campaign while walking the dog, packing tomorrow’s lunches or hopping in the shower. It’s during those seemingly “mindless” tasks that our mind’s free association and creative thinking processes are enhanced and a solution is often found. This means you get more than you bargained for when it comes to hours thinking about your brand.

Is This Sherwood?

There have been times in all of our lives that we’ve not seen the forest for the trees. In Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, they reference the “curse of knowledge,” which more or less means experts, at times, lose the ability to imagine what it’s like to be non-experts. When this happens, messages become muddled and sometimes downright confusing. This is a prime opportunity to tap into your creative team. We’re very unique specialists in the sense that we know your business but we are not in your business. This crucial difference affords us objectivity, a quality that cannot be overlooked. What’s more, we’re also consumers of your product or service, so we have a good sense of what will and won’t resonate with your customers, sans the internal parameters that can affect client decision-making.

We Put the “Ass” in “Passion”

So, the copywriter’s poker face needs a little work. And maybe the art director’s outburst re-wrote the definition of diva. Why is everyone getting so worked up around here? There’s a simple answer to this. We want our clients – no, “want” is the wrong word – we are dying for them to be successful. In George Lois’ book What’s the Big Idea? he famously directs aspiring creatives, “to sell to the boss, if you have to threaten suicide, threaten suicide.” He then recounts his tale of climbing out the window during a presentation with a Matzoh company, clutching his prized headlines and screaming at the top of his lungs, “You make the matzoh, I’ll make the ads!” It was that kind of chutzpah (we’re talking matzoh here) that won the boss man over and made the campaign a huge success. So in the next presentation, if we creative types start showing our, ahem, passion, then remember it comes from believing in your product and more importantly, believing in the payoff that can come from taking a risk.

We Like That Stra-tegery Stuff

You may think inviting a creative to a strategy meeting would be like giving the cast of Jersey Shore surgical tools. But as artists of the ad, we draw inspiration from all angles. And no angle is richer to us than the beginning of a project or campaign. Because we make it “go,” oftentimes the creative department is thought of as the last wheel in the car of a campaign. But we love to be involved at jumpstreet, when the strategy has yet to be determined, when we’re not even sure that the car is even a car yet. That’s when the creative mind is at its best and raw unfiltered creativity can be unleashed.

Now you have a better idea of who those sneaker-sporting, pearl-snap-shirted, skinny-jean-clad nerds are that sit across from you at the conference room table with mounted board and dreams under their arms. It’s true, our minds may work a little differently. But after reading this, we hope you agree that it is a good thing.

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